Tuesday, 11 August 2015

Original language:
RussianTranslation to English by:
H. TwitchellPage count: 16

The back says:The Queen of Spades (Russian:
Pikovaya dama) is an acclaimed short story by Alexander Pushkin about human
avariciousness. Pushkin wrote the story in autumn 1833 in Boldino and it was
first published in literary magazine Biblioteka dlya chteniya in 1834. It was
turned into the opera The Queen of Spades by Tchaikovsky.

I say: This is a short story that
didn’t really do it for me.

Hermann is a German who likes to watch others gamble without taking part himself.
One night, one of the gamblers tells him of his grandmother who once lost
everything during a card game, only to later win it back with a secret of three
winning cards. Hermann becomes obsessed with the secret and finds a way to
wring it out of the old lady, and then...

I cannot say more because that would be spoiling it for anyone who wants to
read it. However, you should be able to guess it because it is quite obvious
and that is the reason why I wasn’t that impressed with this story. Pushkin was
building up to something that could have been magnificent if it were a full
novel, but as a short story it left me with a feeling of meh.

Monday, 10 August 2015

The year is eighteen hundred and thirty one when
fifteen-year-old Mary begins the difficult task of telling her story. A scrap
of a thing with a sharp tongue and hair the colour of milk, Mary leads a harsh
life working on her father's farm alongside her three sisters. In the summer she
is sent to work for the local vicar's invalid wife, where the reasons why she
must record the truth of what happens to her - and the need to record it so
urgently - are gradually revealed.

I say: The best part of this story -
what actually makes this story - was
the underlying tone of foreboding in Mary’s retelling of her life. We know that
something bad happens somewhere along the line, why else would she be so
adamant to defend herself tell her story.

And so the question becomes:
what has she done?

However, before we even get there we get to know Mary; free-spoken, bold,
brass and without a sense of propriety. I really liked her while she was on the
farm, a place where her sassiness fit in, but as soon as she moved into the
vicar’s house I found it somewhat unlikely that she would take the tone with
him that she did. Or that the household would react to it the way they did. I
don’t know, maybe there was more charm to Mary than I noticed that excused
their mirth in her demeanour.

Or maybe I’m just old and grumpy...

Regardless, the
way this is written, in Mary’s own trepidant and sometimes incorrect words, gives
it that realistic feel you could never get with a narrator. It also allows for
her to explain herself, her actions and what led to the reason she is
documenting her life. I have to admit that even though I did see the end
coming, it came in ways I had never imagined...

Thursday, 6 August 2015

The back says:Saved from the jaws of the evil tiger
Shere Khan, young Mowgli is adopted by a wolf pack and taught the law of the
jungle by lovable old Baloo the bear and Bhageera the panther. The adventures
of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi the snake-fighting mongoose, little Toomai and the
elephant's secret dance, and Kotick the white seal are all part of Mowgli's
extraordinary journey with his animal friends.

I say: I had no idea that this was a
collection of short stories as I had only read the story about Mowgli as a
child, so I am glad that I decided to read this once and for all.

Surprisingly, the most famous story about Mowgli was the one I liked the
least.

Children’s versions of books are usually sparser than their adult counterparts,
but it was still a bit of a surprise how detailed, and at times graphic, it
was. Even though it was told in a somewhat captivating way, it kind of bored
me. I had very little interest in Mowgli and his animal friends and their feud.

The other stories are “The White Seal” about a white seal searching for a
beach where humans are unable to kill them. Again, this was contained graphic
descriptions of men clubbing and skinning seals, as well as seals fighting each
other.

“Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” is a cute tale about a mongoose
that saves himself and his humans from two vicious snakes.

“Toomai of the Elephants” is about a boy who wishes to
see elephants dance, something which they say no man has ever witnessed.

“Her Majesty’s Servants”, which was my favourite
story, is about different camp animals talking about the roles they play in
war. It was humorous and insightful, and I will be reading it again at some
point.

All in all it is a good selection of fables that all
have that important moral lesson to them. Although somewhat gruesome, I suppose
that is the true nature of the jungle.

Kipling won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907, and this is a reminder that I really should get on with that challenge.

Monday, 3 August 2015

The back says:An impoverished novelist clinging
to the fringes of high society, Adam Fenwick-Symes takes on the job of a gossip
columnist for the Daily Excess so that he can afford to marry his aristocratic
fiancée, Nina Blount. Adam is soon thrown headlong into the frantic,
jazz-fevered whirl of endless costume parties, treasure hunts, sports-car races
and other hedonistic pursuits of the Bright Young Things of the twenties
Mayfair. But as the Younger Set exercise their inventive minds and vile bodies
in hunting furiously for new and greater sensations, cracks in their glittering
armour begins to show...

I say: The synopsis made this novel
sound far more exciting than it was, and even though I wasn’t expecting that much
I felt a tad disappointed; probably because I felt it could have been so much
better.

So much funnier.

There are a few parts in the beginning of the novel that were humorous,
and I did giggle here and there. However, as the novel progressed what was
meant to be funny turned a bit dull. Like Adam’s meeting with Nina’s father, Colonel
Blount; the first meeting was comical with the Colonel not understanding who
Adam was or why he came. By the second and subsequent meetings it just became
tiresome. Yes, he was a confused old man, but you can only read the same joke
so many times and still find it funny.

Unfortunately.

Apart from that, most of the characters did amuse me, even though I found
it hard to like them – not that I was meant to. They were all flaky and their
ridiculous decisions and shenanigans made for great satire. I feel the same way
about Vile Bodies as I did with A Handful of Dust; I enjoyed the prose and wit, but the end of the novel was a let-down.